``We can imagine a meeting of the minds where China might have insisted that there be an orderly period of years whereby the price of the metals stayed relatively tame to allow them to exchange fiat-based reserves for gold and silver. This would allow them to acquire physical gold to redress the virtual lack of gold reserves to catch up with the West or at least provide parity at higher percentages. It would have been a side agreement to hold the line on price in the interim. We have no knowledge of the existence of any such agreement, but it makes for a plausible explanation as to why price suppression would occur. ''